Head stripped of Dame title for giving job to her sister says: 'I'm the victim of a bitter campaign of vilification'

No longer a dame: Jean Else had her title revoked two years after being found guilty of nepotism

THE former headmistress stripped of her title of Dame today claimed she had been ’relentlessly pursued and personally vilified’.

Jean Else, 59, was awarded the honour in 2001 after transforming sink comprehensive Whalley Range High School, in Manchester, where former education minister Estelle Morris was once a pupil.

However, it emerged today that following a dramatic fall from grace - which led to her being fired for nepotism in 2006 - she has had the title officially annulled by the Queen. She is the first Dame to ever lose her title.

Last night a defiant Miss Else said she was awarded the honour ‘fair and square’ and criticised her ‘bitter’ enemies who have ‘refused to let the matter rest.’

'Under my leadership.. the school became a model for national change,” she said. “No one can take that achievement away from me.

'I will always believe that children are our future. I served them well for over 30 years and I am proud of what I achieved.

'Since the award I have been subjected to seven years of personal and professional vilification.

'I send my prayers to the person or persons who are so bitter that they cannot let this matter rest.'

Miss Else was the £140,000 headmistress at Whalley Range school for ten years from 1994. During her tenure she was feted for managing to transform it from one with the worst truancy record in England into one at which more than half of pupils gained more than five GCSEs with A-C grades.

However, in 2002 a whistleblower reported her to the council for nepotism after she promoted her twin sister, Maureen Rochford, from the post of part-time clerical assistant to deputy head, with a salary of £58,000.

She also paid another member of staff what was described as a ‘questionable’ sum, hired a personal friend for ‘consultancy’ work costing £13,200 and spent £3,300 of school funds to celebrate her DBE.

Transformed: Jean Else taught at Whalley Range High School in Manchester where she gave her twin sister a job

Glory days: 'Super-head' Jean Else, who was then a Dame, with former Whalley Range pupil Estelle Morris in 2001

She was sacked by Manchester City Council following a lengthy investigation in 2006, before being banned from running any state school three years later.

Although she was never banned from teaching and no criminal charges were ever bought, Miss Else, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, said she made a conscious decision not to return to education.

She added: ‘I cannot know at whose instigation and on what basis it has been decided I should relinquish my Damehood. The title is not at issue here as I have rarely used it, although I do know that I earned it with tremendous hard work and dedication over many years.

‘I got the award fair and square for doing what I did.

'As far as I’m concerned you can’t take away what I’ve done and the fact the school is a much better place than when I started there.

’There seem to be other cases where people have faced issues and criticism in their work and have not had their titles taken away. People who have been sent to prison haven’t had their titles taken away. I feel that I have been relentlessly pursued for seven years.

‘I just find it bizarre that after two years this action has been taken. But I am not going to keep fighting it. I have had seven years of it now and I want away. Life is too short.'

The Labour MP for Leigh, near Wigan, said her record in transforming Whalley Range spoke for itself, but added that the decision to revoke her honour ‘was not taken lightly’.

'It is a serious step,' Mr Burnham said. 'The success of the school is a matter of record and it will always remain part of her professional achievements, but the issue of honours is looked at very carefully.'

The announcement that Miss Else’s honour has been withdrawn was made in the London Gazette - the official journal of record.

Only a handful of men have ever had their honours revoked. They include Jack Lyons, the British financier stripped of his knighthood and CBE in 1991 for his part in the Guinness share trading fraud; jockey Lester Piggott whose OBE was withdrawn in 1988 following his jailing for tax evasion and philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon who was stripped of his title after being charged with taking bribes in 1621.

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Head stripped of her Dame title for giving job to her sister says: 'I'm the victim of a bitter campaign of vilification'